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Friday, August 9, 2013

Pauline's Chickens Come Home to Roost

It is one of the more curious attributes of our system of government, that is, the generally irresponsible and unrealistic braying and sniping coming from opposition benches in Parliament, from politicians utterly disconnected or unconcerned with reality.

It isn't a Quebec phenomenon, it is part and parcel of our democracy, the British Parliamentary system of government.

For politicians in opposition, it's a make-believe world, where what you say and do makes no difference or never-mind, and where with the passage of time, the irrelevancy of it all either wears you down into a cynical wretch or turns you into a zombie-like creature disconnected from reality, living in a fantasy world.

Listening to the Utopian drivel that spouts from the mouths of Thomas Mulcair and his gang of Ndp career bench-warmers, the constant gratuitous bellyaching, nit-picking and outright distortions, is enough to turn ones stomach, but alas its part of the game.
Mulcair hasn't been there long, but already displays the classic symptoms of 'oppositionitis,' his latest irresponsible outburst, the unfounded and contemptuous claim that rail deregulation, instituted by the Conservatives, was a contributing factor in the Lac-Megantic train wreck disaster.
When faced with the evidence that the incidence of train wrecks has actually gone down since deregulation, Mulcair did the honorable thing and denied ever having made the assertion.
Nobody paid much mind to his gaffe, at best it received a condescending chuckle in the Press, because what Mulcair and the Ndp think or say affects our lives not a whit.

It's a pet theory of mine, that long bouts in opposition render politicians unfit for power, their minds permanently hobbled by the numbing forces of obscurity and irrelevancy, where imaginary battles long fought, make real ones impossible to face.

God help Canada if the NDP ever attained power.
I cannot imagine the harm that the arrogant (Do you know who I am!) Mulcair, abetted by the insufferable Libby Davis and the likes of the injudicious and nasty Pat Martin could cause.

Wait a second!
I can imagine what it would be like to suffer under an Ndp government.... We've got our own not-ready-for-prime-time gang of PQ fools wreaking havoc here in Quebec, right now!
And what glorious and destructive havoc it is!

I'm not sure why pundits expected from Pauline Marois' motley crew of amateurs, I wrote about the inevitable disaster to be anticipated courtesy of the talentless hacks and nobodies that make up her cabinet, long before the gaffes manifested.
Read: Pauline Steers a PQ Ship of Fools

The only real surprise was Pauline herself, who should have had enough experience to carry the ball as Premier, but she too, it seems, has suffered from the long years in obscurity and has developed a healthy dose of 'oppositionitis,' the numbing and debilitating condition that renders politicians useless and ineffective.

Now let us consider Pauline's first goal, to convince Quebecers that sovereignty aside, her government could and would provide honest, capable and effective government.

As the modern vernacular puts it.... 'How's that going for you, Pauline?'

So like Lucien Bouchard before her, the goal of convincing Quebecers that the PQ is responsible started with balancing the budget, surely an achievement that the electorate would have to take notice of.
Back in the day, Bouchard nearly destroyed the health care system in a wrong-headed attempt to balance his budget, reducing staff, buying out doctors and nurses contracts in a self-harming and long-reaching debacle that has repercussions today.

Pauline is going back to that same playbook, doing a balanced budget variation that is just as destructive and futile as Bouchard's folly. I wonder if she expects a different result?

And so Pauline asked the Education department to take over $200 million in cuts, knowing full well that the various School Commissions which would be affected have the ability to tax homeowners directly and that they could raise the difference in funding on their own and this, without affecting the provincial budget.
That's exactly what happened, with announced school taxes rising by up to 60% in some unlucky districts.

How clever of our Premier!
Forcing other agencies to hike taxes and rates in order to help her balance her budget. A not-so-sophisticated political game of Three Card Monte, where like the elusive Queen of Hearts, the taxes are always hidden from the suckers.

The politics of these issues are usually above the public's capacity to understand and so, a little political rope-a-dope is usually all it takes to tire the public of the issue..

But alas, this issue may be the exception that proves the rule, somehow the white elephant that is the wind-power program has ignited and resonated with the public.
Taxpayers are not bright, but recognize a simple swindle when they see one, especially when it is they who are being conned.
The issue of the egregious political pork, benefiting a small PQ constituency in the boonies, while the rest of us pay the obscene bill, is something that will not pass unopposed.

There is a rising crescendo of rage in the Press, the Premier's sneaky attempt to have her cake and eat it too, not passing the mustard of acceptable governance.

As the issue gathers traction, more and more horror stories are appearing in the Press every day and so it seems that Premier Marois' chickens have come home to roost.

There will be Hell to pay in the Fall when Parliament resumes sitting. The Liberals smell blood, but more importantly the Press smells a story that will spark interest.

Either the Premier does a quick reversal on the wind energy project (entirely possible), or her government is in deep, deep trouble, the CAQ cannot on principle support that kind of waste and so with the Liberals lapping at the PQ heals, something may just give.

Pauline has demonstrated but one political talent, the ability to survive, but like the Teflon Don, sometimes your number is up.

Let's hope he sells out his beliefs - I don't think he will join with the PQ while she is in charge - I think he hates her and she is the reason he left the party in the first place. I can see him running for the leadership if Miss Piggy steps down. Maybe some of his other cohorts will join with the liberals again. God only knows what's coming in this farce of a NA in September - hold on for the f---ing ride. Bastards the lot of them.

Pauline is an old girl that embraced the utopian concept of social-democracy 50 years ago.Yup the good ol' concept of the social safety net; its humane, the poor people are not left behind. The state will look after all. Free for all! It's so much better and civilized compared to the dog eat dog capitalism. Its noble. But its expensive. Spend $2 even if your revenues are $1. It's what Greece, France and Spain did. Look at them now; they're done. They're now overtaxing, slashing and eliminating tens of thousands of jobs. Yup that's the PQ. Wait for it; quebec will pay dearly for living beyond its means. Watch out and be afraid. The government alone is not responsible; two generation of whining, cheating and demanding citizens wanted it. Free tuitions carre rouge demonstrations only recently reminded us. Ill be watching quebec implode from Calgary behind the firewall. I give it less than 20 years.

AnonymousFriday, August 9, 2013 at 6:35:00 AM EDT wrote "Quebec will adapt by whoring herself out to foreigners again. It happened before and it'll happen again." Anonymous can you elaborate on this. Maybe I was too young when this last happened however I don't recall Quebec pulling it pants down to attract investors. At least not in the last 30 years. I remember Quebec giving out "les subventions" which is their main tactic to attract investment however we all know that this form of capitalism is false capitalism as they are playing with tax payer money in private companies who eventually leave when "les subventions" run dry.

JF I was referring to the time , pre-1960, when American interests had their way with Quebec. Drive into, or Google Map the small industrial towns of Quebec. Those industries were by in large set up with American capital. If you look closely, you'll always find a neighbourhood with English street names in these Butt Scratch towns. Typically, these neighbourhoods were where the plant owners or managers resided. Towns like Arvida or the mining or textile towns of the Eastern Townships come to mind. It's wasn't a bad thing for Quebec but I'm sure a lot of those profits were destined for places outside of Quebec. At the moment, we in Quebec are being subsidized heavily by the ROC through transfer payments. The transfer payment formula was put in place so that All Canadians could enjoy the same basic level of services from their Government. Quebec, by consistently incurring budget deficits and accumulating a 250 billion $ debt has proved incapable of providing responsible government. Our suppressed Hydro rates, Rock bottom tuition, and virtually free daycare (things other RICHER provinces can only dream of), are all paid for by Canadians living outside Quebec. How long before this scam gets called? The day those transfer payments stop things will get ugly here real fast and the province will have no choice but to open the flood gates and sell our resources on the cheap.

But since we're on this subject, let me tell you, the question you pose is not a "vraie question", but an irrelevant question. Because even if you were to prove with mathematical precision that nom d'une entreprise is not linked to success in any way, that would still not give you any right to demand the change in the name of any business that does not belong to you. Just as if you were to prove that wearing a blue hat is not linked to success or failure would not be a green light to pushing companies to require that their workforce wear blue hats. Or if you were to prove that changing the name John to Jacques is not related to success, that would still not give you the right to demand that every John in Quebec be renamed Jacques.

The point here is that people who demand changing of trademarked names are out of line, no matter if this change is or is not linked to success. In fact, even if you could show that changing a name would produce success, the company would still have the right not to listen to you for a very simple reason: it is not your company.

It was voted in by politicians, but it might have been supported by the "majority" as well. But so what. In managed democracies we live in, elites can easily whip up or stoke prejudicial sentiments and get people to support whatever the most disgusting measures.

This point was addressed by the British writer Tariq Ali in one of his talks on the decline of Europe. A man asked him a question about Switzerland, and T.Ali touched on the issue of targeting immigrants in this country. Listen to the clip for 1 minute. The key phrase is "manipulated referenda", and the key sentence is "you can say it's democratic because the majority of people voted for it, but if you whip up a hate campaign against a minority which can't argue its case on television...and people vote in a prejudiced way, on that basis you will get votes for capital punishment...expelling migrants...locking up Muslims...and God knows what"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83PE-h-rnzI#t=1h17m55s

So next time someone says to you that 101 is supported by the "majority", you can respond that it says more about this skillfully managed and irredentist majority than about the correctness of the law.

While I know you have some fucked-up obsession with coming up with stupid, pointless words like walmarde and canaya and globish, did they teach you anything about ancient (meaning lone before Canada and Quebec were established) history?

Troy, this is not a simple matter. Because the fact that democracy is so easily highjacked and manipulated by the elites is often used by the Right to discredit democracy as useless. In other words, those who corrupt democracy use it to discredit it. As John Milton wrote: "Those who have put out the people's eyes reproach them of their blindness". I would extend this to: those who Walmartized the culture sneer at the Walmart people.

Democracy is good in principle, but it can work only if it is an informed democracy. A managed or manipulated democracy is still better than a dictatorship or some autocratic elite rule, but it is nothing to settle for.

"I would extend this to: those who Walmartized the culture sneer at the Walmart people."

You're clearly not a Darwinian, Adski.

While the idea of a dictatorship turns my stomach, I can't say that compromised democracy is any better. The trouble is, the 99% are complacent enough to allow managed or manipulated democracies to flourish.

Everyone should take a moment and watch it....words of wisdom I must say. It is really shocking the things that a finally admitted in this clip and I have to admit, and I have to admit that it always shocks me how the RoC is so passive when it comes with all the things Quebec gets away with....to think they could have so much more in their pockets if they wouldn't indulge these fools.

I'm starting to think about the too AnecTOTE - I can see why there is a growing movement to kick us out and perhaps this will be the best way to resolve this once and for all. Half our lives have been spent with this shit hanging over our heads. Maybe this is to time to make the break, the ROC keeps their money, we partition this place and let those areas leave that really want to go. Time goes by and nothing gets resolved - more blackmail, more whining, more causing trouble for us everywhere in the world and us paying for all this. Time to make the best move for all involved I think.

A whole 800 jobs have been created in Quebec since the beginning of the year. Impressive, isn't it?

To be honest, I'm kind of happy with the situation. We went through 10 years of the same crap in the 90s, and nobody learned a thing.All the little sheep (CAQ voters) fell for the whole "corruption" bullshit, and today we get what we deserved.

Education, healthcare and infrastructures will all be in a terrible shape once again when the PQ is finally removed from power, and all the morons will then blame the next government.

Be careful here. Pretty soon Yannick will come here and say that low unemployment in Alberta has nothing to do with systems, politics and people of Alberta but merely because of the availability of oil under its land.

Also...... do note how the franco extremists (separatists) avoid the factual arguments agansts their cases of an independant quebec. In this precise case, unemployment rates, and by extension, quebec's incapacity to remain economically vibrant, Sad.Therefore they do know that a seperate quebec is not feasible.i

LD If the Separatist's ultimate goal is to revert Quebec back to Nouvelle-France with its agrarian subsistence economy, where people chased rats for their pelts and stayed home and had litters of children, well then things are going quite swimmingly.

Kind of looks that way LD - nothing seems to shake them. They're facing what could be there worst nightmare in the whole world but are so spoiled that they think they will walk away smelling likes roses. What a laugh this whole place is turning into.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Francophone+migration+Leaving+Quebec+jobs/8769239/story.html - the separatists are driving out their own families and friends as well. Oh well, they will find some way to reason this out also. Turncoats, colonized, whatever, not because these people want to work and do well for themselves and their families. No way Jose!

Okay, this is totally …way off-topic but merits mentioning. Last night, with a couple of friends, we went to the evening session at Uniprix Stadium to watch some Tennis. The friend who took us had a heck of a time finding parking. Paid parking was full up and everywhere around the stadium, not a spot to be had anywhere. We kept driving around and finally got lucky on one of the back streets, we had to walk some…however. After the last match was over (Novak won), and we were making are way back to the car, we were going down de l’Esplande street and every single car starting from the beginning of the street and for the entire length of it had a parking ticket, …I would say…about…25+cars I am sure. It was just another reminder of how we’re forever becoming more and more a third world backward city. They hold these events and then cannot properly accommodate people who spend the money to attend. Soooooooo bloody sad. I hadn’t been in a few years but even the stadium is decrepit, it is really a small venue. We were seated almost…one on top of another. Even the nosebleed section at the Rexall Ct. in TO has better seats, ….more spacious and comfortable, made me think what a mistake it was to attend here this year.

I work, pay taxes and take care of my Family ...and...almost daily...I think of ways to make the world a better place ...by pointing out the wrinkles. How else can you straighten them out if you don't know where they are??? And since you're deaf dumb and mostly blind...lord knows you people need a lot of help where that's concerned. (schmuck)

You're such a nitwit one wonders how you actually survive each day to see the sun come up the next. WOW.

Here's the thing, judging by your first comment, you assume that there is something wrong with me rather than actually ask yourself what is wrong with the picture I described. If you would get up off your ass sometime and leave this sad province, (if you could afford it), you would realize that you live in mediocrity. Luckily I can and I am able to escape and take off often enough that this little city has become almost a soundbite to me. Bite Me !!

When the going gets tough (as it has in this deteriorating city),... just leave.

At the very least, it does speak volumes of the mindset. The going gets tough; we shit our pants and flee!! This is why trollface over there …and those like him, will never amount to a hill of beans. They have no stamina for sticking things out and never really get an opportunity to build character AND CONFIDENCE. They forego every opportunity to acquire 'coping skills'. At the first sign of a real challenge,.. ils crissent leur camp, ...ils s’en vont. That’s the solution to everything. This is why they don’t last in difficult jobs, or relationships and especially marriages.

True Story:

Earlier this year, over an office lunch, one of the pur-laines I work with found out that next year my husband and I will be celebrating our silver wedding anniversary...he was baffled the entire day. Finally he said to me (and I sh*t you not), “twenty-five years with the same man??? You need to have an affair!!”

By the way, he lasted 16 months with the company, a Consultant resigned and he was handed additional projects, …need I say more.

Ahhhhh…did we hit a nerve? Did we huwrt yo feeeewwwingssss..agaaaain?...lol

“Vous semblez agité”…lol

Since you asked, let me draw you a picture of a productive Life. Throughout High School, Cegep and University some of us were expected to have and hold down a job. If we ever started something, we were expected to finish it, no excuses. We have always worked and luckily (knock wood), never had to collect employment insurance. Le ‘BS’ is not part of our vocabulary, nor part of the vocabulary of the people we hang with. We contribute to our community by helping to coach house league soccer and anytime a kid rings our door selling something, we buy. We contribute to charities yearly and some of us even run Centraide on behalf of the company we work for. The last few years especially, I make it a point to make special periodic donations to my alma mater, since your sorry-ass province has cut funding and targeted McGill.

The next time you decide to open that big trap of yours, look at yourself in the mirror and if you can honestly admit you’ve accomplished half of what many of us do in a lifetime, then and only then are you allowed to voice an opinion...SAVVY? Rather than going around feeling hurt, insecure and disenfranchised your whole Life, …GET A JOB, pay Taxes and start contributing, instead of complaining that Quebec gets a bum wrap on social media.

AND lastly, ...stop your incessant 24/7 trolling, you’ve become neurotic. Make something of yourself, so when finally, the time comes, they can write something dignified on your headstone.

I'm very real buddy......very very REAL !! I know what I just described sounds completely foreign to you...you sorry schmuck...but yes...there are people like me in the real world...fortunately...a lot of people...EXACTLY LIKE ME...who keep the world moving, shaking and growing, for sorry little a-holes like you who can't manage to get up in the morning without a helping of, "I FEEL SORRY FOR MYSELF".

Thank you for the insight, much appreciated, but I have bigger fish to fry. Though it may seem that I talk to the trolls, in reality, I post for Visitors to the blog...savvy?? LOL...(that's righttttttttt !!!! LOL)

I'm one of the people who believes that the next election will result in a Bloc Quebeois-style decimation of the PQ.

I used to think that Quebec Solidaire would stand to benefit from the decimation of the PQ, until this headline just came in: "Des jeunes du PLQ proposent de fermer les bars à 5 h 30"

Whether you're a seppie or a non-seppie, everyone in this province has to admit that taxes must be curbed - they're literally killing people (I know of two people who work 65 hours a week to keep up).

Even an separatist economist like Aussant recognizes that in the event of separation Quebec would be in for a minimum of five years of hardship, and given that quite a few seppies (except the ones on this blog) are aware of that.

This is the reason the cause can only whip up 28% support and only 31% of the population voted the PQ into power.

Only the most dogmatic ones support an agenda that will financially cripple their countrymen in the name of political lip service. After all, these types were never on the fast track to success in the first place, so they have nothing to lose.

I think the jig is up, even 17yrs old's have figured out these people are FAILING !!! ...Not winning...FAILING...with their constant crap and paranoiaaaa....Yeah...I think you're right, they're pretty much done for!!

I disagree.The problem with anglos on here is that they believe that quebec's problems will all be resolved with more english everywhere.quebec will never be "more english". Never. Might as well save you some time and move to Alberta. BTW Ontario won't cut it as it's another shit province like quebec.

From Norman Simon of the Quebec Anglophone Community on FB - for info and sharing please.

As you can all see, it is not just the English and multi-ethnic communities who have been affected adversely by language restrictions on education and business. The French community is also being hard hit. When will our MNAs realize that language restriction is affecting all communities in Quebec? And now with the real threat of Bill 14 looming, we can only imagine the brain drain that will affect us here. It is time to rise up and support individual choice while blasting government force. When our Anti-Bill 14 event is announced, we expect everyone, no matter their community affiliation, to be with us to support the scrapping of this horrible piece of legislation.

I would love to see that happen to these clowns once again. They do not belong anywhere in quebec but this area is almost completely anglophone and has been for hundreds of years. Bunch of bums that should be working for a living.

FROM EDAnectote, why didn't you go by metro? There is a station right there. The reason the cars are ticketed is because they expect people to use the public transport that is built for such things. The cars deserved it.

Anonymous,where do you get the idea that Americans built Quebec? When Quebecers wanted money in those days they went to the English Community (St.James street) or the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. When a Francophone business man wanted help he talked to his Priest who made the connection with the Archbishop of Montreal. Montreal was the powerhouse of North America back then and money flowed in all directions. Before 1960 the French hadn't even heard of Plattsburgh Beach.

I wish posters would stop playing with the trolls. I had to search through the last 50 posts to find the information I needed. It's a God Damned nuisance and a useless one at that. Ed

From Norman Simon of the Unity Group - go and help them celebrate tomorrow - bilingual signage back at Menchies because the group(s) requested it!

A reminder, dear friends!Meet our brave David Lipper (Mr. Menchie himself), who overcame the OQLF in "Spoongate"! His Montreal stores now boast bilingual signage. He will be at his DDO store to meet and greet everyone who wishes to see him! Anyone who buys a frozen yogurt there tomorrow, Sunday, the 11th of August, between 12 noon and 2 pm, and mentions The Unity Group will get a 20% discount. There will also be giveaways!Menchie's3671A Blvd St JeanDollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec H9G-1X2

Typical separatist response - try to infer it's something other than what it is. Don't you guys ever get tired of this BS? The pay you receive must be very good or you really have nothing else to do with your miserable lives.

Yeah - it's better than proposing more "social" programs for which we have NO MORE MONEY! My TAXES are high enough. You bums get out of school and get a damn job and start paying into the system instead of sucking it dry - just for a damn change! Put Miss Piggy in front of some of those wind turbines and we should produce enough electricity to light a bulb - and she's as full of hot air as any politician that ever strolled his paid for ass around quebec. Losers.

No. SAQ should be disbanded and the alcohol trade should be deregulated. All the government needs to do is to monitor and control it, just like tobacco and pornography, and not be involved in the trade.

Yes, we definitely need these drunk drivers on the road at 6:00 a.m. when people are going to work. At least now they are on the road when most of us are still in bed. These kids have to find other ways to amuse themselves like I dunno maybe play ball or soccer (with turbans) to tire themselves out. God, can't we find more important things to discuss with these kids like paying their own way and staying in school to get an education. We have the highest dropout rate in the country and they talk about the bars staying open later. We have raised a whole generation of spoiled brats that don't care about their future and live for today.

This has nothing to do directly with Quebec, but it's a funny comedy piece about a multilingual country where French is spoken by a minority of the population. Unfortunately, I don't know French enough to fully appreciate this. Since the rest of you do (most of the Anglos who post here are bilingual), please enjoy the following link with Marie-Thérèse Porchet teaching a lesson about Swiss geography:

One more thing about Switzerland I learned which is different than Canada. When a Canadian complains about "the French", he usually means the Quebecois and the speaker is an anglophone. Similarly, when a Quebecois complains about "les anglais", he means fellow Canadians from the ROC and the speaker is usually a francophone.

When a Swiss complains about the French, he usually means the French from France and the speaker is a francophone. When a Swiss usually complains about "the Germans" he usually means the Germans from Germany and the speaker is a germanophone. When a Swiss complains about Italians, he usually means Italians from Italy, and the speaker is an italophone from Ticino.

This Gazette article is why I am a fan of Phillipe Couillard. He is the most federalist premier I can think of in a long time and while I am sure that he is for Bill 101, as all mainstream Quebec politicians are, and sees Quebec as a francophone province, he often says positive things about anglophones and is against Bill 14.

ST-AUGUSTIN-DE-DESMAURES — With Quebec’s economy in the midst of what he calls a perfect storm and a Parti Québécois government foundering, Liberal Leader Phillippe Couillard has told his party to gird for the inevitable.

“My friends, we are at the dawn of an election,” Couillard said.

“The weeks and months to come will be crucial for the future of Quebec.

“And we know that Quebec’s success will emanate from a Liberal majority government in the next election. And we are going to win.”

Included in his speech at the close of the annual meeting of the Liberal party’s youth wing here, Couillard’s comments and tone were by far his most electoral-like since taking over the Liberals from Jean Charest.

And the shift away from his more technocratic style of speaking in a combative political tone in which he blasts the PQ government did not go unnoticed.

“Remember before the summer, I said my electoral wick was getting shorter,” Couillard told reporters later at a news conference. “And, by definition, a wick always gets shorter.

“But what I am seeing on the economic front is of great concern for Quebec. It’s no mystery to say there will be an election in the short or medium term in Quebec — it’s a minority government. There will be an election. It’s our duty to be ready. It’s our role.”

The PQ will have been in power a year in September. With the average shelf life of a minority government about 18 months, all the parties this fall are expected to start cranking up their electoral machines for a vote sometime in 2014.

The Liberals, PQ and Coalition Avenir Québec have all scheduled party caucus meetings over the next three weeks. The legislature resumes sitting Sept. 17.

Once there, Couillard said the Liberals will not “actively” seek to bring down Premier Pauline Marois’s regime — it has had several opportunities already. But he said Quebec is in such a mess, the Liberals will have to play hardball.

The economy is slowing and jobs are being lost, sparking a loss of government revenue, which means an increased tax and fee burden which many Quebecers are already feeling.

He said Quebec’s own revenues are down about $1 billion. He added the government is going to face some serious questions about all of this, questions he fully expects it to try and dodge by talking about sovereignty and identity issues.

And Couillard appeared to be testing some election attack lines in his speech to 300 Liberals, starting by saying the PQ — despite nine years in opposition — was totally not ready to govern.

“Governing is not a game, or like putting on a play,” Couillard said.

“The PQ was not ready to govern.”

He reminded Liberals the PQ promised in the election campaign to govern “differently.” “Amateurism,” would be a better way to describe the way it turned out, he said.

While the PQ promised to freeze electricity rates, they increased them.

It promised to scrap the $200 health services tax. It’s still there.

It promised to increase mining royalties by $400 million a year. Instead, PQ dithering has paralyzed the entire industry and almost killed the Liberals Plan Nord for economic development.

The PQ has also hiked school taxes, slashed welfare payments, health, education and research funding while employment, economy and investor confidence plunged.

“The PQ always talks big while in opposition,” Couillard said. “But it acts completely different when in government. It’s the same thing each time.

“My friends, this is not governing differently. It’s shoddy workmanship and improvisation.”

He said while Quebec lost 40,000 jobs in the year the PQ has been in power — the equivalent of the population of Boucherville — 80,000 were created in the rest of Canada.

Couillard made the comments at a convention where youth delegates spent two days polishing up the left, social solidarity side of the Liberal’s platform.

They adopted resolutions saying a Liberal government would give priority to poor neighbourhoods for new $7 child-care centres, and even give lower income families priority for new spots.

A Liberal government will table a new policy to help the homeless and reform Quebec’s taxation system for individuals and companies, an idea Couillard himself campaigned on when he ran for the leadership.

He said he is not a fan of a government benefits system that penalizes lower income workers who try and increase their revenues.

“It’s not normal that people with average revenues find themselves with less money in their pockets when they get salary increases,” Couillard said. “We can’t make society progress this way.”

Clearly planning to attack the PQ on its left flank, Couillard ripped the PQ as a bunch of “pseudo social-democrats,” and said the Liberals now are the only true “socially progressive” party in Quebec.

And at a conference in which anglophone delegates — all of whom are bilingual — were invited and encouraged to address the assembly in their first language, the youth took a swing at improving things for minorities.

They voted in favour of a motion saying a Liberal government will mandate Quebec’s ministry of immigration and cultural communities to draft an action plan that addresses problems faced by Quebecers with double-minority status.

And Liberals will create an anglophone consultative committee reporting to Quebec’s justice ministry. The committee’s mandate would be to find ways “to encourage the participation, inclusion and representation of the anglophone community in all spheres of modern society.”

During the Liberal leadership race, Couillard came down against the idea of delegating a cabinet minister responsible for the anglophone community, a line he repeated Sunday. He added, however, that there’s nothing wrong with a committee to keep up “formal contact.”

“Close to one million Quebecers are English-speaking,” Couillard said. “We want them to be happy to be part of Quebec society.

“They must have a forum somewhere where they can engage the government in order to voice their needs.”

But Couillard appeared relieved he was able to dodge having to take a position on his youth wing’s controversial idea to allow bars, taverns and nightclubs to stay open until 5:30 a.m. The proposal dominated headlines from the convention Saturday.

Delegates shot down the idea in a show of hands at the plenary Sunday after a heated debate pitting Montreal Liberals against those in the regions.

Couillard, nevertheless, appeared to be confidently getting ready to face voters, daring to say he plans to present Quebecers a “program for government,” rather than the traditional “election platform.”

He said it will be well thought out and correspond to the desires of the people instead of the PQ’s plan that is based on an “outmoded ideology.”

“We will tell you what we will do and how we are going to do it,” Couillard said. “And we will do what we said.”

Completing a tour of the province, Couillard said he’s concluded Quebecers are looking for something new and hopeful and less talk of fear, isolationism and threats.

He said the future is about inclusion, liberty and tolerance and an economic program that generates enough wealth to care for the poor, homeless and voiceless.

“That’s what it means to be Liberal. We are Liberals because Quebec’s diversity is a richness for all, not something to be feared, a strength to embrace and celebrate.

“We are Liberals because we believe tolerance and inclusion are the way to unite Quebecers of all origins.”.